While the 767 tanker lease deal continues to be debated in that other Washington, across the Atlantic, Airbus and the Boeing Co. are going at each other in an effort to win a tanker bid from the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force.
The complexities of this British tanker deal would make John McCain’s head spin.
What Britain’s Ministry of Defense proposes is to completely outsource its military aerial refueling services. They’re looking to award a 27-year contract, worth an estimated $22 billion, to the entity with the best proposal for doing that.
Both Boeing and Airbus have formed coalitions with other defense and financing companies to pursue the bid.
What Boeing proposes is buying up British Airway’s fleet of about two dozen used 767-300 passenger jets and converting them. The Boeing consortium — which includes Airbus parent company BAE Systems, by the way — would hire military reservists to crew the planes. When they aren’t being used on military missions, they’d fly as civilian cargo carriers.
This arrangement would bring in revenue that would save British taxpayers of millions of pounds a year over the life of the contract, according to the Boeing consortium. It also would provide the Royal Air Force with more planes than what Airbus proposes — more bang for fewer bucks, so to speak.
Airbus, however, sees this as an opportunity to break Boeing’s global stranglehold on the multi-billion-dollar military tanker business, and in recent weeks, it has mounted an all-out attack on Boeing’s plans.
Airbus charges that converting used 767s, instead of new-built A330s, presents an engineering nightmare that would lead to cost overruns and delays. But at the same time, Airbus says it’s willing to substitute some used A330s in the mix, in order to bring down the cost or to put more planes in the air.
Airbus also says that its proposal would create more jobs in the U.K., which means its bid has crucial support from organized labor.
And with the U.S. Air Force expected to listen to bids for more tankers — when and if the debate over the first 100 767 tankerss ever gets resolved — Airbus is telling its supporters that today’s RAF tanker deal is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for Europe to prove it can provide tankers to the alliance tomorrow.
Boeing’s group is trying to debunk the Airbus claims, and has raised a few of its own — the big lumbering A330 will be more difficult for jet fighters to fly in close to, for example.
The debate won’t last much longer. The Ministry of Defense is expected to announce its decision before the end of the month.
Closer to home, the Machinists union plans a Friday afternoon rally in Auburn to press for approval of the 767 tanker lease, and to encourage Boeing to locate 7E7 production in the Puget Sound area.
Boeing is nearing a decision on where to locate the 7E7 final assembly plant, union spokeswoman Connie Kelliher said, and the Machinists want to demonstrate community and employee support for locating it here.
"The other locations are doing everything they can to be noticed," she said. "We don’t want them to forget about Washington state."
The union wasn’t fazed by Boeing’s Monday announcement that it plans to fly in major subassemblies, rather than rely on deep-water ports, Kelliher said.
"We don’t care if (the subassemblies) come by Pony Express," she said. "We can bring the ponies up to Everett."
The rally will start at 4 p.m. at the Machinists Auburn union hall, which is at 201 A St. SW.
Along with Machinists district president Mark Blondin, those speaking at the rally will be U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, state Attorney General Christine Gregoire, state Speaker of the House Frank Chopp and Charles Bofferding, the executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.
Reporter Bryan Corliss:
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